I'm a Fellow at the Adam Smith Institute in London, a writer here and there on this and that and strangely, one of the global experts on the metal scandium, one of the rare earths. An odd thing to be but someone does have to be such and in this flavour of our universe I am. I have written for The Times, Daily Telegraph, Express, Independent, City AM, Wall Street Journal, Philadelphia Inquirer and online for the ASI, IEA, Social Affairs Unit, Spectator, The Guardian, The Register and Techcentralstation. I've also ghosted pieces for several UK politicians in many of the UK papers, including the Daily Sport.

Links 3 Dec: Apple, Google, Facebook, Amazon. The European Taxmen Are Going After Them All

There’s a certain amount of political confusion over here in Europe about the taxes that various of the internet giants should be paying. The national politicians are noting that those companies selling over the net, Google, Facebook, Apple, Amazon, seem not to be paying much tax on their profits. This does not, of course, please politicians. But what they’re missing is that this is the deliberate intent of the tax system that those very same politicians have set up.

Caught in the crosshairs: firms like Google Inc., GOOG +0.39% Amazon.com Inc., AMZN +0.21% Microsoft Corp. MSFT -0.38% and Facebook Inc. FB +0.91% The companies rack up tens of billions of euros in yearly sales in Europe but pay comparatively little tax in many countries because of arrangements that they and many tax experts say are legal.

The tax talks are likely to stoke debate over the role of national borders in an increasingly virtual world. They could also challenge some of the underpinnings of the current European tax system as it is used by businesses.

Wednesday’s autumn statement will be full of big numbers and arguments about fairness. But Monday’s report from Margaret Hodge’s public accounts committee on how the biggest companies dodge their fair share of taxes is incendiary, huge in its implications, and ought for once to unite politicians from all sides.

The overall picture is by now familiar to anyone interested in the news: Google, Amazon, Starbucks and many other multinationals are using different jurisdictions and complex accounting rules to avoid paying corporation tax. What the report lays out with new clarity is the terrible imbalance between our national tax-gatherers and the cleverer, sharper corporate accountants, plus the vast scale of the problem – so big it is beginning to feel like a national crisis.

Amusingly I was on one of the TV news programs with Margaret Hodge this lunchtime. And she seems not to know that changing this situation just isn’t one of the things that is in the power of the UK government. For the UK government does not set the corporate tax rules within the European Union. It’s the EU that does that.

Amazon, Google and Starbucks have been accused of an “immoral” use of secretive jurisdictions, royalties and complex company structures to avoid paying tax on British profits by a committee of MPs.

A hard-hitting report released on Monday by the Commons public accounts committee, the parliamentary spending watchdog, also criticises HM Revenue & Customs for being “way too lenient” in negotiations with corporations which pay little or no corporation tax. It calls on the government to draw up laws to close loopholes and name and shame companies that fail to pay their fair share.

These just aren’t loopholes. They’re the way the system was set up, the way that the system is suppoosed to work. You need to have only one base, one in any EU country, in order to sell to every EU country. Corporation tax is charged where that one base is. That’s not a loophole, that is the system. Even HMRC (our version of the IRS) says this isn’t tax avoidance. This is just the way corporation tax works.

New laws and prosecutions could be necessary to force Amazon, Google and other multinationals pay a fairer amount of corporation tax in the UK, according to MPs.

And the UK doesn’t have the ability to change those laws. For they’re not UK laws, they’re EU ones. And EU lawe over rides national law in much the same way that Federal does State in the US. This just isn’t a loophole: it’s the system itself.

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